18 THE PRACTICAL HORSESHOER. 



'^cold fitting-/' while another recommends '' hot fitting," 

 not simply as admissible and something- to be tolerated, hut 

 as the only way in which a shoe can be properly fitted, 

 and as being a positive benefit to the foot rather than an 

 injury. 



To open out the heels, even to drawing blood — using a 

 saw for the purpose when necessit^^, or laziness, suggests 

 it, and then cut down the wall all that it will bear, follow- 

 ing this by a cutting away of the entire sole until it readilj^ 

 yields to slight pressure with the thumb, or till the blood 

 oozes through, while the frog is also nicely trimmed off, 

 is advised by one, wiiile another says, ** The frog and sole 

 should never, under any circumstances, be cut at all." 



But the subject is of too wide a scope, the opinions and 

 practices of horseshoers and horse-owners differ too radi- 

 call3^ ; while the almost endless variety of feet to be shod, 

 the variety multiplied over and over by the varied condi- 

 tions in which the feet are found, owing in some measure to 

 shoeing both good and bad, leave too much to be written to 

 hope for more than the most casual reference here to a few 

 of the abuses to be found. 



How better point out these abuses, as they look to the 

 writer, than to relate some scraps of personal experience ? 

 But need I put this experience in the first person ? Have 

 not so many other horse-owners been through the same 

 experience that to state the fact, leaving out the '' I," will 

 come right home to them ? A new horse is purchased after 

 careful examination of feet and limbs ; the gait and manner 

 of going are all that could be desired, and there is not a 

 mark on any ankle or knee to show that there has ever been 

 such a thing as striking either forward or behind. For two, 

 three, or even for four or five wrecks the horse is driven 

 with the same shoes he wore when purchased, the clinches 

 get out so that it looks dangerous to go longer without 

 shoeing, and still there has been no interfering. The horse 



